Monthly Archives May 2013

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On April 17th, I appeared on a local cable access technology show, ComputerWise. The topic of discussion for the show was “Mining on the Internet” with a specific emphasis in bitcoin. Bitcoin is an open source deregulated digital currency, a protocol, and a software that enables…

Rich has been reading up on bitcoin for sometime and cramming my brain with information about how it works, who’s using it, what it can be used for and the like. I thought it was an interesting topic, so I contacted George Roberts, the host of ComputerWise, and he agreed that it would be a good topic to discuss!

It’s been a while since I crammed for something, but I worked most of the day on that Wednesday to put together some discussion points to talk about live later that evening. Powerpoint is how I like to roll, pulling my inspiration for the presentation from the 20×20 format that Pecha Kucha uses. Here are the fruits of my labor:

Here’s the full episode of ComputerWise that I was on (my part starts about 26:00 in):

I’ve been watching this show for MANY years. In my experience, the viewers of ComputerWise aren’t necessarily “tech savvy”, so the information that I discussed was a bit of a dumbed down version so that the viewers of the show could more easily understand what was going on. Here’s a link to show you the demographics of the viewers of the ComputerWise website (most of them are pointed there from the TV show): http://computerwisetv.com/tvshow.htm

The format of ComputerWise is kind of casual. George is a gracious host and makes you feel comfortable, but he doesn’t really reveal what questions he may ask during the segment. You have to think about what may be asked and try to be prepared to answer questions. I’m not going to lie. I could feel myself not being prepared for a few questions and tried to think quick on my feet by making use of the computer on set or kind of BSing my way through a question or two. All in all, I think I nailed a good majority of the talking points. I am always super critical of myself and think I do awful on TV. It pains me to watch. I asked a few other of the reporters and meteorologists that I work with how they deal with it, and they feel the same way. I guess it’s a natural thing. Every time I get nervous, I think back to Leadership Wilkes-Barre advice on public speaking my class received: Only you know how you feel on the inside. No one else can tell you are nervous, anxious or ready to crawl out of your skin unless you make it obvious or mention something about it. Fake it ’til you make it. Or whatever.

It’s really great being able to educate people about a topic they may not otherwise know about. This is my fourth time on the show doing such things. I have already suggested some more ideas to George for upcoming shows. I would love to some day see a show like this come to NEPA (ComputerWise mainly airs in the Lehigh Valley area, and to those who have Service Electric and Blue Ridge Cable). Even if it existed in an online format. Hmmmmm *wheels turning*…..